1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program, and in more detail to an information processing apparatus equipped with a position sensor and a pressure sensor and an information processing method, and a program for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Touch panels are capable of realizing intuitive and easy-to-use user interfaces, and have been conventionally used in ticket machines for means of transport, in bank ATMs, and the like. In recent years, touch panels have also become able to detect user operations, making it possible to realize appliance operations that could not be performed with conventional button operations. For this reason, in recent years, touch panels have come into widespread use in mobile appliances such as mobile telephones and game consoles.
As one example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H11-203044 discloses an information processing system that detects a pressed position on a touch panel and a pressing force on the touch panel and carries out processing in accordance with the pressed position and the pressing force. By doing so, it is possible to realize a greater variety of operations on a touch panel.
However, as described in Publication No. H11-203044, a touch panel is normally disposed close to a display. In a touch panel constructed in this way, when the user carries out a pressing operation where the user presses the touch panel with his/her finger, a large load is applied to the display. This means that for operations that use a touch panel, there are problems regarding hardware constraints and durability.
There are further issues relating to pressing operations on a touch panel in that it is difficult for a user to recognize the extent of the pressing (i.e., whether the screen has been pressed sufficiently strongly) and that some operations, such as when the user moves his/her finger while pressing the touch panel, are tiring for the user.